Stephen Jay Gould is not only an amazing author, but he is an asset to the scientific community. Wonderful Life is an amazing read that any reader will be able to enjoy and learn from.

The narrator was also great in this and made the book even more enjoyable.

I should have known this but it is a difficult task reading a science novel via audiobook. When the figures were mentioned I had absolutely no idea what they were about or what they looked like because of this. However, I did enjoy listening to what I could follow along with! I'd love to read this physically. I am a former English teacher studying Marine Biology now. I greatly enjoyed the opportunity to listen to this novel and learn from it! The Burgess Shale is truly a marvel. Without it we wouldn't know what we do about evolution of life! It's so cool!

Thank you to Netgalley and Tantor Audio for the ALC audiobook! ♥

Thanks to Tantor Audio and NetGalley for providing an audio-arc.

DNF at 47%.

Wonderful Life is a book by Harvard paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould that explores the evolution of Cambrian fauna based on the fossils of the Burgess Shale. The book argues that chance and contingency play a major role in the history of life, and that many of the bizarre creatures of the Burgess Shale could have been our ancestors if history had unfolded differently.

I had high expectations for this book, but I couldn’t follow it after a while. It got too esoteric for my taste. I don’t think the author wrote it for a lay audience. The audio narration was mediocre at best. It was slightly better than the AI narrations of today, but not by much. The narrator had a dry voice and no emotion. The book was academic, but that doesn’t mean it had to be dull. A good narrator should know how to emphasize and convey emotion. This one didn’t. I was disappointed by this book. I give it 2/5 stars and the narrator 3/5.

The narration of this book was wonderful, but the content just wasn't for me! I wasn't in the right headspace to read, and most of the topics discussed completely went over my head.

I had the opportunity to listen to the new audiobook edition of this title, narrated by Jonathan Sleep, through NetGalley. This review is a reflection of the audiobook in particular. Unfortunately, this is an awful audiobook experience and I wish I had spent my time elsewhere.

The main issue with this book in audio format is that there are several tables and figures that are referenced throughout the original text, and obviously there is no way to communicate those through audio. Hearing about the features I should be looking at in a figure felt stupid, especially when it comes to the weird wonders of the Burgess Shale, which by definition aren't intuitively constructed so it's not easy to conjure up a mental image in reference.

The narration itself was a bit confusing too. Jonathan Sleep has a very nice voice and he narrates with a tone and inflection that perfectly suits the kind of old science memoir-cum-manuscript that Stephen Jay Gould produced here. However, he pronounces several commonplace words in unusual ways, which is particularly odd since, to the best of my experience and understanding, the objectively more complicated taxonomic vocabulary was correct. It's really weird to me that "Anomalocaris," "Wiwaxia," and "Naraoia" are pronounced as expected, but "panoply" and "inference" are not.

Finally, while this is obviously a seminal work (if not THE seminal work) on the Burgess Revision, I've been informed that much of the information is (understandably) out of date at this point, and the original work is written so pretentiously that it's no wonder that scientists are often labeled as aloof, haughty, and out of touch. If I wanted to read someone so verbosely taking themselves so seriously, I'd go to Reddit. Or re-read my own review. In 2023 and beyond, laypeople like myself would likely find it more worthwhile to read a more recent book on the Burgess Shale.

Perhaps this book is a better experience as a hard copy, the way it was intended to be read, but I could not in good conscience recommend the audiobook edition to anyone.

I've been wanting to listen/read to Stephen Jay Gould for a long time - countless other authors I've read have referenced him and the concepts he presents in this perhaps timeless work of nonfiction.

Gould tells a story of science and evolution through the lens of the Burgess Shale, an archaeological find that rewrote our understanding of the evolution of life on Earth. I only knew the barest facts of the Shale, so learning the history of its discovery and the work undertaken for over a century since to uncover the mysteries behind its fossils was fascinating in itself. Gould makes the story truly compelling by interweaving biographies of the people who worked on the fossils, and the twisty tale of the things that they got wrong (or right).

A final note to make is that the audiobook narrator has a pleasing, almost soothing voice - an excellent choice.

Highly recommended for anyone with an interest in evolution and the scientific process!

This book is - without sounding too corny - WONDERFUL! I learned sooo much from it. I found it to be slightly entertaining, so I was never bored listening to it. It was filled with so much knowledge and things I wouldn't have ever learned otherwise. This is one that anyone interested in the sea should read.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Unfortunately I believe most of this "Weird wonders" info is out of date. It's not a bad book just doesn't have the most up to date information. Definitely use this as a reference alongside some newer editions.

Audiobook
This audio ARC did not include photos, indices, appendices, etc. that might be present in a text version.
I enjoyed this audiobook. I have a strong science background, though I don't think a strong science background is necessary to enjoy this book, though I doubt it is aimed at people who have no knowledge or understanding of basic principles. An interest in evolution would be helpful if not a strong understanding. The author has performed a lot of research and presented his data, theories, and arguments well.
Anybody considering graduate school should read what the author wrote about major professors and the experience in general. He got it absolutely right.
This is a work of nonfiction. As such, readers can focus on specific areas of interest. I found this book informative and interesting. I learned a lot from this audiobook.
Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

“Alter any event, ever so slightly and without apparent importance at the time, and evolution cascades into radically different channel.”

This was a fascinating book that tells the story of the fossils found in the Burgess Shale in Canada.
This was an extraordinary read, wonderfully written and entertaining. I really enjoyed it and also learned from it!
I highly recommend to anyone interested in paleontology, evolution and the origin of life.

Thank you to @netgalley and the publisher for providing an AudioARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Wonderful Life audiobook is a great way to read the popular text and learn the details of the Burgess Shale. The Narrator was engaging. In a more academic focused non-fiction, a personal worry was that it would be read in monotone and not catch my attention but it was the complete opposite! It had many anecdotal elements as well as a hopeful tone about the natural history and science surrounding the Burgess Shale. I really enjoyed the comparisons to popular media: films, books, and poems. I wouldn’t necessarily reccomend this to every reader, I think having a interest in the subject would help reader’s/listener’s enjoy the book. I also think having a copy of the print or ebook would help people follow along better as a lot of information is packed in. Those with a trilobite interest and the ability to follow along to a science-laden text, this is the audiobook for you!

Small Wonder

If you're interested in paleontology and evolution, you'll definitely want to give Wonderful Life a try. While the book may not be the most thrilling read, it is packed with fascinating details about the history of animals and nature, and Stephen Jay Gould's writing is clear and well done.

As a British Columbian myself, I was particularly drawn to the book's focus on the Burgess Shale, and I found it to be a valuable account of this important area of scientific discovery.

While some may find the book a bit dry, I appreciated its attention to detail and the depth of knowledge it offers. So if you're looking to learn more about the evolution of life on Earth, I would definitely recommend giving Wonderful Life a read.

2.8/5

I requested this book in hopes for a David Attenborough style educational experience on natural history. While I could be easy convinced that this text holds up well in academic circles, it is not an easy listen for the common consumer.

When listening to a book on natural history I fully expect to encounter scientific and technical language that is foreign to me. I can lean from context and very much enjoy that experience. Unfortunately, this book was weighed down by overly complex language outside of its field of study. It seemed to pander exclusively to academia rather than the average listener who seeks to learn.

Wonderful life would probably be an excellent choice for someone deeply invested in learning all things natural history. If you are looking for a text to spark your interest and fuel your curiosity, I would look elsewhere. This reads like a thesis.

This was a really interesting look into the Burgess Shale, and the many different studies that have gone on throughout the years. Beginning with the first, the next fifty years have given more information.

There is a lot of scientific terms, and the different lists were helpful in running down the information. Great book! I enjoyed it immensely.

I received an ARC audiobook in exchange for an honest review!

This book I think was a little bit over my head. I did not realize that it was nonfiction. However, I did find some of it interesting. I think those who have study the Sea and Nature's history will find this audiobook super interesting. It is a very detailed informed book. There is a lot about fossils and the ocean. I would not suggest the average reader listen to this unless you are well versed in geological vocabulary. It was a little bit hard to follow only because I did not understand what some of the words mean.

Read if you enjoy:
Nonfiction
Ocean
Nature History
Fossils

Gould is a great writer. It cannot be easy to take a topic that is as complex and varied as the scientific history of the Burgess Shale and make it appeal to both the layperson and the academic but I feel Gould has achieved this. His writing style is clear and full of rich imagery and prose which I did not expect in a text of this nature but found very enjoyable. This book feels like a combination of history, science, and philosophy all tied together with poetic imagery.

The audio reading is very clear and Jonathan Sleep has done a great job although I found myself upping the audio speed a little.

Please keep in mind this book was published in the late 80's so some of the information is out of date- the Burgess Shale creatures have been studied a lot in the past 40 years.

I ended up getting a copy of this book out from my local library solely so I could look at the figures being referenced because I wanted to better understand what was being discussed.

I listened to the 2023 audiobook of this classic and was surprised that it didn't sound dated. Now, admittedly, I'm not up-to-date on the latest scholarship relating to the Cambrian period. But since the book largely focuses on the history of how the Burgess Shale fossils were interpreted, it captures and analyzes a snapshot of time in a way that illuminates not just the research but the process of research itself.

There's a wistful quality about this book, about the way it dismantles the Chain of Being from microorganisms to Homo sapiens sapiens as if it were a natural progression. Because the Cambrian shows other routes life could have taken. The reason some forms of life survived while others didn't may come down to luck.

The book also shows, in a compassionate way, how the worldview of scientists may affect their work and limit their interpretations of the data. This story is as much about people as it is about the Cambrian fossils.

If you're interested in how multicellular life began to flourish and create the world we know today, you won't want to miss this book.

Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC I received. This is my honest and voluntary review.

What on earth is the Burgess Shale and why should I care, you may be asking yourself. In the mountains of British Columbia lies one of the richest deposits of 500 million-year-old fossils in the world. When first discovered in 1909 they were considered to be unique in the world, years later, Gould comes to a completely different conclusion about these creatures, that they were not as unique as first thought and are merely a representation of life in the Cambrian Explosion. Ironically, since this book was first written, Gould’s ideas have also been challenged, but such is the nature of science. Gould was a scientist with the soul of a poet and his books reflect that

About a half-billion years ago during the middle Cambrian period, the Earth was home to a population explosion of diverse species, most of whom would later die out in the mysterious Cambrian–Ordovician extinction event.

There were few records of that time until the Burgess Shale, a fossil-bearing site containing a wealth of soft-body-part imprints in Canada’s Rocky Mountains, was discovered.

According to Stephen Jay Gould’s “Wonderful Life” (first published in 1989), practically none of the creatures found in the Burgess Shale match the categories (phyla) scientists use to classify species in the animal, plant, and fungi kingdoms. (This contention is now controversial, with some scientists, including the one Gould used as a source for his claim, saying most of the critters in Burgess Shale can be classified into modern phyla.)

With that said, Gould’s argument is that the Burgess Shale reveals a great variety of phyla that existed about 500 million years ago, but most of them left no modern descendants due to the mass extinction. He says that this shows the role of chance in the evolutionary history of life, meaning that historical outcomes depend on an unpredictable sequence of events, where any change in the events alters the final result. Gould is challenging the conventional view of evolution as a gradual process that climbs a ladder of complexity and increases in diversity. Instead, he proposes that evolution consists of periods of stasis followed by rapid change, and that the survival of many species depends more on luck than anatomical superiority.

Given how the dinosaurs were nearly wiped out by an asteroid or comet, it’s hard to argue with the idea that luck drives evolution. Certainly the superior characteristics of velociraptors, who were the among the fastest and most intelligent of the Dinos, didn’t matter when the Chicxulub impactor came slamming down to ruin their existence.

Wonderful Life is a fascinating and engaging book that combines science, history, and philosophy. The narrator, Jonathan Sleep does a good job of reading although I found his pacing a little slow, so I bumped up the speed from 1x to 1.25x.

My only problem with the book is the publishers’ decision to create an audiobook edition without providing a PDF that includes the illustrations. Because there aren’t pictures in this audio edition (obviously) but the book refers to them often. So I checked out the Amazon Kindle edition’s preview where the images in Chapter 1 are provided, and found that the graphics and photos are important to conveying Gould’s ideas. The audiobook is poorer without them.

I recommend the book as a 4 out of 5 star read, but keep in mind that Gould’s premise that most of the fossils found at Burgess Shale didn’t fit modern phyla may be wrong.